Eurovision 101 with AJ & Caitlin of Talking Trash: Eurovision

[00:00:00] Viewer discretion is advised. Your faith will be criticized.

[00:00:07] Today we are joined by AJ and Caitlin of the Talking Trash Eurovision

[00:00:12] podcast to discuss all things Eurovision 2024.

[00:00:18] Hi, thanks for having us.

[00:00:20] Of course, of course, and a special shout out to our Patreon producers,

[00:00:23] Lily, Emily and Juliet.

[00:00:25] And don't forget you can become one too at patreon.com slash CCTV pops.

[00:00:29] And you can help us decide our next episode topics and also get the exclusive

[00:00:34] before this episode is released.

[00:00:35] Oh, yes.

[00:00:37] All right, so Chantel and I have dabbled in Eurovision through the years.

[00:00:41] Like I watched the Netflix movie, of course.

[00:00:44] We've watched select performances that have gone viral.

[00:00:47] But it is time to truly get into it because it is the biggest music event

[00:00:51] in the world, so it feels wrong that we're not already into it.

[00:00:57] You're getting in because it's a really strong group of songs.

[00:01:00] Yeah, yeah, we're enjoying it.

[00:01:02] Yeah. Oh, that's exciting.

[00:01:04] OK, so many non-European still don't know about it.

[00:01:07] Sorry. It blows my mind like it's

[00:01:09] welcome everybody get into it.

[00:01:12] We know we're realizing now,

[00:01:13] but you know our Patreon Dwayne even said it's still going on.

[00:01:17] I only know because Ava got big off of it.

[00:01:19] So a lot of people forget like Celine Dion was a Eurovision artist.

[00:01:25] Like they've been genuinely Sam Ryder like from the UK, like a lot of the folks

[00:01:32] have competed in Eurovision and people that like Americans know about.

[00:01:37] So let's go America.

[00:01:38] It's a slow crawl.

[00:01:39] I mean, we talk about even with Kylie, we didn't a lot of people didn't know.

[00:01:42] And I'm like, oh goodness, but we're going to get to that.

[00:01:44] So give us a second, y'all.

[00:01:47] Yeah, because so passionate.

[00:01:50] Yes.

[00:01:51] So AJ, Caitlin, how did you get into Eurovision then?

[00:01:55] Oh, yeah. This is mostly my fault.

[00:01:58] It's actually weirdly Chris's sister's fault.

[00:02:01] Oh, start with the whole thing.

[00:02:03] She said a couple things to watch.

[00:02:05] And then when the movie came out, she wanted someone to watch it with her to

[00:02:09] like talk about it with.

[00:02:10] And I watched it and was like, this is a thing that happens every year.

[00:02:15] And then by the time 2021 came around and it was back from covid.

[00:02:19] I was so far down the rabbit hole that there was no coming back.

[00:02:22] You know what's funny about that?

[00:02:23] I'm not sure we've ever talked about this.

[00:02:25] I also saw the Eurovision movie with Chris's sister because she wanted to watch

[00:02:29] it a second time and her and our friend Danielle came over to my home and we watched

[00:02:37] it and I was like, oh, what a funny like farce.

[00:02:41] And they were like, no, no, no, this is genuinely.

[00:02:44] Yeah, it's like this is genuinely Eurovision is like.

[00:02:47] And so I started to just I went down like the YouTube rabbit hole.

[00:02:51] And then Caitlin and I just like as the years have gone on,

[00:02:53] like I've just fallen deeper and deeper into the well.

[00:02:57] And now I'm fully obsessed.

[00:03:00] Just yeah.

[00:03:04] So what do you enjoy the most about?

[00:03:06] Give us a little teaser into your mind.

[00:03:08] Let's know what is it that drew you to it and why do you keep watching it?

[00:03:12] It's a spectacle.

[00:03:13] I mean, the whole point of it is that each country gets three minutes to make

[00:03:17] an impact. And so there are countries who don't take it as seriously.

[00:03:20] But there are countries who pull out all the stops.

[00:03:22] There are countries that go very weird.

[00:03:25] There are countries that just go very big and there's like pyrotechnics and

[00:03:29] huge stage displays.

[00:03:30] It's like somebody took American Idol and injected it with like an incredible dose

[00:03:36] of acid and steroids.

[00:03:38] It's bananas, like for those of you out there who have seen Eurovision on Netflix

[00:03:42] or what's Eurovision Song Contest or the I spy or saw I spy or spy

[00:03:48] or a nice sort of I mean, watch that movie.

[00:03:50] That is what Eurovision is like.

[00:03:53] Like the crazier the better actually is good there.

[00:03:56] I love it. I live for it.

[00:03:57] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:03:58] And again, it gives spectacle.

[00:04:00] It gives fashion.

[00:04:01] It gives crazy.

[00:04:03] It gives weird culture that you wouldn't, you know, yeah, especially as Americans,

[00:04:07] you know, what do we know about Lithuanian culture?

[00:04:11] Except now we know at least a couple artists and what they like.

[00:04:15] They're pop music.

[00:04:16] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:17] Another cool thing is that sorry, we're just going on and on.

[00:04:20] But the other one, she talks about like the different cultures and stuff.

[00:04:23] There is a point in the show and I'm sure we'll get to it where like every

[00:04:26] country gets to vote and when they do that, like you get a little clip of the

[00:04:30] country and like some of them wear their custom, you know, costume or

[00:04:34] Gaelia and I don't really like that part because I like seeing all the

[00:04:37] different countries, like what their cultures are in a snippet.

[00:04:40] So yeah.

[00:04:42] Nice. Yeah.

[00:04:43] I also have a lot of friends that are now planning trips, right?

[00:04:45] To go actually attend.

[00:04:47] So I know some people who are going this year actually.

[00:04:50] That was a wrap.

[00:04:51] Yeah.

[00:04:52] That's the next step for you guys, I think.

[00:04:54] A thousand weeks now.

[00:04:56] We've threatened a whole like months long tour of all the national finals

[00:05:00] ending at Eurovision.

[00:05:02] So yeah, we're gonna get an RV and just cruise Europe.

[00:05:07] Cute.

[00:05:08] Okay.

[00:05:08] So now you have a podcast.

[00:05:10] So what made you decide to start that and how has it been going?

[00:05:14] Well, I'm a podcast jumpy.

[00:05:16] Like I listen to podcasts of all kinds every day.

[00:05:19] Anytime I'm in the car, walking my dog, like I just love podcasts.

[00:05:23] And I've always been told like, you're such a podcast fan.

[00:05:27] Why don't you make one?

[00:05:28] And so I mean, we both love Eurovision and just seem kind of like an obvious

[00:05:33] thing to do.

[00:05:34] Like.

[00:05:35] And when we were talking about it a little last year because we noticed

[00:05:38] that the only American commentators we could find were really surface level.

[00:05:42] They were like.

[00:05:44] Very into it was just a straight like I like this or I don't, but not really

[00:05:49] talking about why it works or why it doesn't and where it comes from or any.

[00:05:53] Yeah, yeah.

[00:05:55] So we thought, you know, yeah, I mean, hopefully someday it gets even bigger in America.

[00:06:01] There was one year, I don't know if it was last year, the year before when Johnny

[00:06:04] Weir was the American commentator on the Peacop stream of Eurovision and like

[00:06:10] amazing, no one would be more perfect than Johnny Weir.

[00:06:13] To comment on Eurovision.

[00:06:15] It was perfection.

[00:06:16] Except us.

[00:06:17] Except us.

[00:06:18] No, we're better than Johnny Weir.

[00:06:19] Yes, for sure.

[00:06:22] I don't want to price myself out.

[00:06:23] I work for Cheat Eurovision.

[00:06:25] Call me.

[00:06:27] That'd be amazing if you got a phone call.

[00:06:30] But yes.

[00:06:31] So as we mentioned, Chris and I have been kind of

[00:06:34] dippledabbling, flirting with the idea of Eurovision, but not fully invested.

[00:06:39] But I feel like Chris, you have a little bit more of like a year of the

[00:06:44] connection to European music.

[00:06:45] So like I think his is a little bit more like, oh, yeah, the UK.

[00:06:49] But I don't think you and I have ever like really delved super deeply.

[00:06:53] And when we were talking about doing this episode, I was like, I think I know

[00:06:57] the Lorraine one last year.

[00:06:58] Right? I was like, oh my God, wait, she did Euphoria.

[00:07:00] And when I was like getting into college, she had won that year.

[00:07:05] And I was like, yo, who's this airbending lady?

[00:07:06] That's all I knew.

[00:07:07] I didn't know was Eurovision.

[00:07:08] I just saw wind in her sound.

[00:07:10] Like, wow, she's great.

[00:07:13] But like at the time, my brain was not, I guess, ready to do full research.

[00:07:18] So I'm kind of disappointed in myself for not really getting into it.

[00:07:21] But yeah, I was thinking to myself as we were getting ready for this,

[00:07:24] how in the world do they pick the acts beforehand?

[00:07:27] Like do they have like national competitions?

[00:07:28] And obviously they do, but like it's so involved.

[00:07:31] Not all of them.

[00:07:32] Oh, yeah.

[00:07:34] Every country's different.

[00:07:35] Sometimes it's like a national selection where they do a little mini Eurovision

[00:07:39] for their country.

[00:07:40] Sometimes it's a season of the voice.

[00:07:43] Sometimes it's just the broadcaster gets together and says this one.

[00:07:47] Go.

[00:07:47] Well, and it's like that scene in the Netflix movie.

[00:07:50] Like sometimes it's just a bunch of folks in fancy clothes sitting around

[00:07:53] a conference room table saying like, who should be saying because they'll win?

[00:07:57] Like it's as simple as that.

[00:08:00] So yeah, I like the ones where there's competitions because then we can watch them.

[00:08:04] Oh, yeah.

[00:08:05] But no, that should have been the one like

[00:08:07] oh, let's talk about Germany.

[00:08:10] Oh, well, please hold.

[00:08:12] Oh, shit.

[00:08:14] I am aware of a lot of the Swedish ones because they do Meloda festival in, right?

[00:08:21] Yeah.

[00:08:21] So one of our favorite artists steps.

[00:08:23] We've done a lot of episodes on.

[00:08:24] Oh, sure.

[00:08:25] A lot of their discography has come from that festival like through the years.

[00:08:30] Yeah.

[00:08:30] And I'm a step span as well.

[00:08:32] I think yes.

[00:08:33] Yes.

[00:08:34] So good.

[00:08:35] And 18s reunited this year at Meloda

[00:08:39] festival and as well.

[00:08:41] So great moment.

[00:08:43] Do you know if they're going to do

[00:08:45] Eurovision because I heard that Abba has officially said we're not coming back.

[00:08:49] So 18s made.

[00:08:51] Well, placeholder.

[00:08:53] Oh, well, one of them is about to pop her baby.

[00:08:56] So maybe next year.

[00:08:58] You know, maybe next year, but she just would all the stage.

[00:09:01] It's Eurovision.

[00:09:02] It flies like it would totally work.

[00:09:04] Get the other singers to come in with like hot towels.

[00:09:07] No one's going for this.

[00:09:09] Turn it.

[00:09:09] It's show.

[00:09:11] But before all the craziness, Eurovision was a simple baby on TV, right?

[00:09:17] Yeah.

[00:09:18] Yeah.

[00:09:19] So the competition started in 1956 as sort of a way of like World War Two was

[00:09:25] over, the dust was sort of settling and Europe needed to get a long T-shirt for one

[00:09:30] want a better term.

[00:09:31] So they put together this competition and you're right.

[00:09:34] In the beginning, it was just people standing in front of a microphone singing

[00:09:38] a song, you voted on what your favorite was.

[00:09:41] And then.

[00:09:42] And just like 17 countries or yeah, like that, like a dozen countries.

[00:09:47] It used to be yeah, super small.

[00:09:49] And then when you really start to see the shift into being the like sort of crazy

[00:09:54] festival that it is now is in like the nineties and 2000s when you started to get

[00:10:01] Estonia again, Thoania and Poland, those like Eastern European countries started

[00:10:05] to come in and they didn't have the name recognition that some of the Western

[00:10:10] European countries had.

[00:10:11] And so what they did instead was go crazy.

[00:10:14] Absolutely.

[00:10:16] They came in with costumes and weird,

[00:10:19] introverted dance and pyrotechnics and changed it for the better.

[00:10:24] Yeah, definitely for the better.

[00:10:25] Yeah.

[00:10:26] Interesting.

[00:10:27] So through the years with that, it's interesting because with the competitors,

[00:10:32] you get the really like dramatic ballads.

[00:10:34] You do get the kind of crazy weird stuff as well.

[00:10:39] Have you noticed a pattern with kind of what does well or is it kind of just

[00:10:42] a crapshoot every year?

[00:10:44] Well, so since the nineties when everything changed and the competition changed,

[00:10:49] they put in a new voting system where 50% of the points you get from the audience

[00:10:55] and 50% you get from industry experts.

[00:10:58] And they're usually at odds.

[00:11:00] We talk gas a little bit, but the jury points usually go towards those

[00:11:04] more ballady, prettier, well sung, clean performance.

[00:11:10] And the audience likes the crazy gas.

[00:11:12] So we sure do.

[00:11:14] It sort of depends on if there's an ax that

[00:11:17] manages to sort of straddle the line a little bit and be a really cool song

[00:11:24] that still has audience appeal, that tends to do really well.

[00:11:28] Otherwise it tends to go more towards the ballads because the audience will

[00:11:33] be split on which brand of crazy they live that year.

[00:11:36] But we've also seen it where like, you know,

[00:11:38] so the jury votes go out first and then they get to like the audience scores.

[00:11:43] And what we've seen happen is like a country like Slovakia could be at the bottom,

[00:11:49] but then the audience chimes in with overwhelming love.

[00:11:53] And like all of a sudden they're in like 10th place from like 30th place.

[00:11:57] Like that can legitimately happen.

[00:11:59] And that's that's always an exciting part of the votes.

[00:12:02] Yeah, to see something like that.

[00:12:03] And Caitlin can explain this better than I can.

[00:12:06] But there's also a lot of politicking involved in the votes.

[00:12:08] And so sometimes it is truly political.

[00:12:12] And usually the producers in charge of the show will catch that and fix it while

[00:12:17] it's happening, but there is a lot of neighbors voting for neighbors.

[00:12:21] And some of that is just straight up what's popular in Poland is going to be

[00:12:24] popular in Ukraine, but not necessarily in Portugal.

[00:12:28] Yeah, I'm like Portugal always votes for Spain and Spain always votes for

[00:12:31] Portugal, right?

[00:12:32] But there is also a lot of like some of that is just cross culture.

[00:12:36] And some of it is the Scandinavian countries only like each other and they

[00:12:39] don't really give votes to anybody else.

[00:12:41] So it's both ways of like sometimes it is politically motivated and sometimes

[00:12:46] it is just, no, we like that song too.

[00:12:49] Or we like we know that artists because they play concerts in our country as well.

[00:12:53] Yeah.

[00:12:54] And also like there's been times where like so Ukraine won two years ago.

[00:12:58] Two years, three years.

[00:12:59] 2022.

[00:13:00] So two years ago Ukraine won and that was like the year the war started.

[00:13:04] And like, but to be fair, their song was awesome.

[00:13:08] So like they might have won anyway, but there were certainly a lot of people out

[00:13:12] there saying that like, oh, they just won because of Russia, blah, blah, blah.

[00:13:16] And yeah, but you know, so like this year it might be interesting to see what

[00:13:19] happens with Israel.

[00:13:21] Yeah.

[00:13:22] So there's definitely some political

[00:13:24] match passions behind the voting, but they frame up and down that they are in a

[00:13:29] political contest because how else are you going to get everybody in Europe to do

[00:13:34] cooperating too long?

[00:13:36] I'm skeptical.

[00:13:37] I'm listening.

[00:13:37] It's fine.

[00:13:39] Yeah.

[00:13:39] Also worth mentioning by the way that Russia has not been allowed to participate

[00:13:42] for the last three years.

[00:13:45] In a minute.

[00:13:46] Yes.

[00:13:46] And there's also like, I don't know what they call it, but there's

[00:13:50] like you're against the spirit of Eurovision thing when they can be

[00:13:53] like, sorry, you can't you can come to our party.

[00:13:57] Yeah.

[00:13:57] Got it.

[00:13:58] One thing we did want to ask was some countries will submit songs in English.

[00:14:05] Some they will sing in their native language.

[00:14:10] What's kind of the is there a reason for that?

[00:14:13] Like, is it a strategy thing?

[00:14:15] Do English songs tend to do better?

[00:14:16] Or I guess what are your thoughts on that?

[00:14:18] Hey, when taught me this, I'm going to let her take it.

[00:14:22] There is a strategy to it.

[00:14:23] A lot of songs like Czech Republic almost always sends a song in English.

[00:14:28] Austria, Austria usually sends songs in English and Israel also usually

[00:14:32] things in English like a lot of them do.

[00:14:34] Yeah.

[00:14:35] The bigger country is like Italy.

[00:14:37] Certain countries prefer certain things.

[00:14:39] Italy likes to send a song in Italian.

[00:14:41] France likes to send a song that's either in French or a couple years

[00:14:44] ago they had one in breakfast on.

[00:14:46] But it is it is a strategy game of if you're

[00:14:49] Azerbaijan, who actually is sending a song in Azerbaijan this year.

[00:14:53] I'm very excited.

[00:14:54] But 90 percent of the time they don't because

[00:14:58] half of Europe can't find you on a map.

[00:15:00] So it makes more sense to connect with more people to send a song that's in English.

[00:15:06] Yeah.

[00:15:06] And then sometimes it's like their vibe and their staging and everything is so

[00:15:10] incredible that it transcends the language.

[00:15:13] So like strategically, for example, this year, they're like,

[00:15:16] we don't need to send it in English because our song rocks.

[00:15:20] It's pretty great.

[00:15:21] Yeah, but that's Adrian's right in that if you're going to send a song in your

[00:15:26] native language, it needs to be pretty clear what the song is about because

[00:15:30] nobody's going to look up.

[00:15:32] You've got to have a really strong vibe if you're going to send a song

[00:15:39] in Estonian, for instance.

[00:15:41] Yeah.

[00:15:42] I like seeing the foreign languages for me as an American.

[00:15:45] I'd love to hear the other languages, but I understand the strategy behind it.

[00:15:49] There's also a few songs this year where they sing in both English and they

[00:15:53] like interject some lyrics in their native language, which I think is also really cool.

[00:15:57] Yeah. So yeah.

[00:15:59] That mass appeal is definitely, definitely important.

[00:16:01] And you all did cover some of the rules.

[00:16:04] But for the people who don't know, we were doing some more research.

[00:16:08] And we found out that for most countries,

[00:16:11] they compete in the semifinals, which then lead into the grand finale.

[00:16:14] But there are a select group of countries called, I guess,

[00:16:19] kind of considered the big five, right?

[00:16:21] The UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy that automatically qualify for the

[00:16:26] grand finale, along with the host countries entry due to their large

[00:16:30] monetary contribution to the contest.

[00:16:32] So a lot of people I think would be like, what is that?

[00:16:34] How does that work?

[00:16:35] But I mean, it makes sense.

[00:16:37] Apparently Eurovision is super expensive.

[00:16:39] Oh, my God. I was not even expecting that myself.

[00:16:41] You did your research. Who knows?

[00:16:43] Yeah, sure.

[00:16:44] We do hear on CCTV.

[00:16:45] Be sure to subscribe and leave us a like comment.

[00:16:48] And yeah, so a lot of people also don't know that the winning country

[00:16:53] hosts the competitions the following year.

[00:16:55] And because of this, it is believed that some countries don't want to host

[00:16:59] the contest, so they deliberately enter songs they know they won't win,

[00:17:02] which is kind of counterproductive to what you said about like the audience

[00:17:06] liking the spectacle.

[00:17:07] Because like, what if the song was like, what does the fuck say?

[00:17:10] People are like, I love this.

[00:17:11] No, no, that is a thing that could happen.

[00:17:14] You know, so I encourage you all to go Google Windows 95 man.

[00:17:19] All one word.

[00:17:20] That is a singer participating this year.

[00:17:23] And if you think what does the fuck say is a weird song?

[00:17:25] My God, good news for you.

[00:17:28] Yeah, there is definitely there was like sort of a string of like Serbia

[00:17:33] and Croatia and a few of the smaller countries winning and suddenly being like,

[00:17:39] we don't have a stadium big enough to host Eurovision.

[00:17:42] We had like Azerbaijan won in I think 2011 somewhere in there and had to

[00:17:47] construct a stadium because there wasn't.

[00:17:49] Yeah, it's like when you post the Olympics,

[00:17:51] like you have to have the right.

[00:17:53] What's the word I'm looking for?

[00:17:54] Infrastructure, right?

[00:17:56] So there it definitely in modern times, the smaller countries,

[00:18:01] you want to be noticed, but you want to be strategic about it because

[00:18:05] your Treasury Department is going to lose it if you do.

[00:18:10] Well, yeah, and like one exception might be when Ukraine won and they couldn't

[00:18:15] host, but England stepped up for them, which was really cool.

[00:18:18] Yeah. And in Ukraine still got to be like the host country.

[00:18:22] But obviously physically it was not in.

[00:18:24] Yeah, no, they did a really beautiful job.

[00:18:26] They had Ukrainian hosts.

[00:18:28] They had former Ukrainian acts that they brought out to like make it feel like

[00:18:33] a Ukrainian competition, even though it was hosted in Liverpool.

[00:18:36] So yeah.

[00:18:37] Yeah, but that big five things.

[00:18:39] So like you mentioned earlier, how Italy almost always sends

[00:18:42] something in Italian, they don't have to worry as much because they know

[00:18:46] they're in the final five or what is it called?

[00:18:48] The finale.

[00:18:49] The finale.

[00:18:50] They get to skip.

[00:18:50] They get to skip all the preys.

[00:18:52] So yeah, so like Spain will be in Spanish and yeah,

[00:18:55] like they don't care as much or sometimes they just phone it in like Germany.

[00:19:00] So sorry, I'm back to that again.

[00:19:02] I'm so mad about Germany.

[00:19:03] Germany is really, really bugged both of us this year.

[00:19:06] But that's the other thing you said with the big

[00:19:09] fives and host country getting to skip the semifinals.

[00:19:12] There are countries where you're like, oh, yeah, Italy can just go to the

[00:19:16] finals because they always turn out with a really good song and some cool staging.

[00:19:20] Germany.

[00:19:22] On the other hand, historically does not.

[00:19:24] And recently the UK has an either.

[00:19:27] And so there is sort of a little bit of a bitterness to some of the countries who are

[00:19:31] like, we have to go through this semifinals.

[00:19:33] We have to like battle it out.

[00:19:35] We have to take the risk of performing multiple times and maybe something goes

[00:19:38] wrong and gravity is just going to roll up some guy who is looks like he

[00:19:43] just rolled out of bed and we had a whole thing about his hoodie.

[00:19:46] It looks like you know the chair like where you put your laundry before

[00:19:50] goes in the hamper.

[00:19:51] Like I was joking that he's wearing a chair hoodie.

[00:19:53] Like this guy showed up in like payless sneakers and no knock against payless.

[00:19:59] I love a bargain.

[00:20:00] I'm just saying for Eurovision, you better come in fashion.

[00:20:02] And this guy shows up in like, you know,

[00:20:05] VAMS high tops and like a wrinkled hoodie and he won the German nationals

[00:20:10] against some stuff that I thought was really, really cool and strange.

[00:20:14] And like I'm still not like clearly I'm a little bit about this.

[00:20:17] I have not gotten over it yet.

[00:20:18] Yeah. So I'm glad.

[00:20:21] So we've been watching like all the finalists for this year so far.

[00:20:27] And so it's interesting because some of the settings of the semifinalists,

[00:20:31] like some of them are performing in a club.

[00:20:33] Some of them are performing in what looks like, you know,

[00:20:35] like X factor, the voice type stage soundstage.

[00:20:38] And some of them are in like arenas and stuff.

[00:20:41] So when they get to the final,

[00:20:43] are there standards with how much they have to add to the production?

[00:20:47] Because some of them are doing the absolute most already and some of them are not.

[00:20:50] So there's not a standard.

[00:20:52] It sort of worked out between the artist and whoever the broadcaster is.

[00:20:56] So for England, it would be BBC.

[00:20:58] You get a certain amount of budget and then the artist sort of drives

[00:21:01] the creative direction.

[00:21:03] And they add budget.

[00:21:05] They can. Yeah.

[00:21:06] That's like most of that.

[00:21:07] Well, within whatever the budget of the country is,

[00:21:10] Muldova, for instance, is not going to have a ton of money to throw at

[00:21:14] something the way that Germany or the UK would.

[00:21:16] So what you see on the staging in the national finals does not necessarily mean

[00:21:21] that's going to be what you see at Eurovision.

[00:21:24] Yeah, but it's a good indicator of where that are starting with the building.

[00:21:28] Yeah. So like, for example, I happened to

[00:21:31] kind of was like a grower, but at first I didn't love it.

[00:21:34] But now I'm really kind of digging the guy from France whose name is Slimal.

[00:21:38] And the song is like it's a ballad, but it's like a power ballad.

[00:21:42] And it's actually really beautiful.

[00:21:44] But in the initial performance, like the Nationals, he just kind of stands there

[00:21:49] with like a bright light behind him.

[00:21:51] And so like that's a song that could really benefit from some cool staging.

[00:21:55] So like we have to wait and see because it's a good song, not a great song,

[00:21:59] but it could be great if he produces something magnificent on stage.

[00:22:05] So. OK, valid.

[00:22:07] OK, so going back to some of the rules.

[00:22:09] So you had mentioned before they did change quite a lot through the years.

[00:22:13] Well, currently it should be noted so songs can be sung in any language.

[00:22:17] The artists do not have to be from the country that they are representing.

[00:22:22] And also the backing track must be

[00:22:24] prerecorded, but vocals must be completely live with no lip syncing or auto tune allowed.

[00:22:31] Yeah. Mm.

[00:22:32] So there are bands, though, that do perform.

[00:22:36] So yeah, what do you think of kind of the fact that the backing track has to be

[00:22:40] prerecorded? I think it levels the playing field a little bit.

[00:22:44] And I think that there's no way for something like that where you've got.

[00:22:49] I think the finale is 25 or 26 songs back to back to back.

[00:22:53] If you had to switch out

[00:22:55] instruments as well as my acts and all of that, someone's going to get

[00:22:58] hosed because of microphone for or a guitar or something is not getting plugged in.

[00:23:03] Right.

[00:23:04] So I get where people are coming from of but his guitar didn't have to be live.

[00:23:09] Well, no, but he does have to be standing on stage being engaging with the guitar still.

[00:23:15] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:23:16] I mean, I think it's not that no one wants to hear it live.

[00:23:18] I think we would love that.

[00:23:19] But I think just like from a point of pragmatism,

[00:23:22] it doesn't really work to like reset the stage every single time.

[00:23:26] And, you know, so yeah.

[00:23:28] And like something will get delayed or technical will delay something.

[00:23:32] So I think it's just, you know, it's not like a we don't want we don't perform live.

[00:23:36] It's just that it doesn't make a lot of sense.

[00:23:38] And every year there's some problem with someone's in ears or someone's microphone as is.

[00:23:43] Yeah, there's already problems.

[00:23:46] You know, right.

[00:23:47] However, many instruments on top of that just does make sense.

[00:23:50] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:23:51] Also, like, aesthetic, you know, there's not a lot of wires and cables and,

[00:23:55] you know, stuff like that.

[00:23:56] So it looks pretty on TV and it also like frees up some of the musicians to

[00:24:01] be able to like move around and go a little crazier.

[00:24:03] And that's always fun.

[00:24:04] Never hurts. Yeah.

[00:24:06] And I love, love, love that they have to sing live.

[00:24:09] So that's yeah great.

[00:24:11] Like that really and it's it's amazing because some of the singing is like unbelievable.

[00:24:17] And you have to remind yourself that they are really singing.

[00:24:20] Yeah.

[00:24:20] And it's interesting because there are a couple national finals where they

[00:24:24] allow out or two, but you have to know going into Eurovision that that is not.

[00:24:29] Yeah. You can use it in your Iceland national final, but you cannot use it at Eurovision.

[00:24:33] Yeah. So you have to sort of plan the song around

[00:24:37] if I am dancing for three minutes straight and I keep my breath enough to get these votes.

[00:24:42] Yep. Oh yeah.

[00:24:43] I cannot wait to talk about our faves with all the non lip syncing.

[00:24:47] But before we get there, before we talk about our faves currently,

[00:24:51] we have to talk about some people that Americans or non-Europeans

[00:24:56] actually do know, even if they are not familiar with Eurovision.

[00:25:00] And we have a couple of names you name some.

[00:25:03] We've mentioned some as well.

[00:25:04] We had Abba, who represented Sweden in 1974 with Waterloo, which was like one of

[00:25:08] like the first ish kind of like completely English singles like right on Eurovision.

[00:25:12] Right. On that watch their career.

[00:25:14] We have Celine Dion, who represented Switzerland in 1988 with a song,

[00:25:18] which I cannot pronounce because I don't speak the language.

[00:25:21] But you know, she already had that success in Europe.

[00:25:24] But this was a huge launching pad for her.

[00:25:26] You had Olivia Newton, Sean, of course, before Greece, four years prior to Greece

[00:25:31] in 1974 with long live love.

[00:25:35] And she's already becoming popular in the UK.

[00:25:37] But again, before Greece, it's like the little launching pad for a lot of these

[00:25:42] people and then most recently, monoskin, I've seen them live.

[00:25:46] I at first did not get it because I only heard begging.

[00:25:49] And I used to be like, I cannot what this grow.

[00:25:52] But I recently saw them on Global Citizen and I was like,

[00:25:55] twenty twenty one Italy deserve that win.

[00:25:58] They are absolutely one of my favorite performers I've seen like live.

[00:26:03] We had tickets and that was like, I think I got the was that when I had covid or

[00:26:06] I got the flu covid I got covid for like the 14th time.

[00:26:09] No, I've had it three times.

[00:26:12] So yeah, three times.

[00:26:14] Yeah.

[00:26:14] So I did not get to see monoskin, but but when her sister had a very nice

[00:26:19] time in my place, I encourage any woman who wants to get into Eurovision to watch

[00:26:23] their performance. They interact with the camera in a really interesting way.

[00:26:26] They interact with each other.

[00:26:28] They interact with the audience.

[00:26:29] They are playing for three minutes.

[00:26:32] Yeah.

[00:26:33] And if we see impressive performance, I'm with you.

[00:26:35] I didn't care for begging terribly much.

[00:26:38] But by the time begging came come out, I'd already seen them at Eurovision.

[00:26:42] And I was like, whatever.

[00:26:44] See, and I liked that song and didn't even realize it was then because I

[00:26:47] only knew them from Eurovision and it's quite different than what I knew of them.

[00:26:51] So there's other ideas.

[00:26:53] I don't know if you had more.

[00:26:54] I'm sorry if we cut you off, but like there's like you mentioned

[00:26:57] Lorraine earlier from Sweden, like there's some people who have had

[00:27:01] like mildly successful singles that have carried out past Eurovision

[00:27:07] like Lorraine and I'm trying to think Sam Rider was kind of like a

[00:27:11] rising star and then like competed in Eurovision and it like had a

[00:27:15] pull to him.

[00:27:16] Adi Freer didn't win.

[00:27:18] They got I think fourth, but think about things was supposed to be their 2020.

[00:27:23] The year it got cancelled.

[00:27:24] Yeah, I was supposed to be their song and that launch they've got a pretty

[00:27:28] globally successful.

[00:27:29] Yeah. And this year you have Ali Alexander competing for the UK

[00:27:34] who has been really successful in his group years and years,

[00:27:37] but now he's competing as a solo artist.

[00:27:39] And I'm sure like launching his solo

[00:27:42] kind of launch his solo career with it.

[00:27:43] So and he might be so great.

[00:27:45] It's a great little pop song.

[00:27:46] It's wonderful. So yeah, stuff like that happens all the time.

[00:27:50] Yeah, we don't realize it.

[00:27:52] Yes, for sure.

[00:27:53] And this is a great segue because we do want to shout out.

[00:27:56] So one of our patron producers, Louis,

[00:27:59] he also loves Sam Rider's Spaceman.

[00:28:02] He also had one of our listeners, Lester, who wanted us to shout out

[00:28:05] Lorraine and said Euphoria and Tattoo are both two of the best pop songs ever.

[00:28:10] I also need to shout out Chanel's Slow Mo.

[00:28:14] Great.

[00:28:15] It was the Spain entry because that was going viral everywhere on my feeds because

[00:28:21] a choreographer was Kyle Hanagami, who I used to take his class.

[00:28:25] Shut up.

[00:28:26] I'll yeah.

[00:28:27] And now he choreographs for K-pop.

[00:28:29] He choreographed the Mean Girls movie that just came out.

[00:28:32] So so yeah, he I was already following him and you know, all the dance kind of circle.

[00:28:37] So Chanel.

[00:28:38] I can't stop. Sorry, cut you off.

[00:28:39] Yes, yes. So yes, I have to shout that out.

[00:28:42] That is I've watched every single performance that she's done, I think of Slow Mo.

[00:28:46] We're together.

[00:28:47] And it's also been fun for me because I've seen all the little changes

[00:28:51] that Kyle made from kind of the first performance through to the final Eurovision

[00:28:55] performance as well to make the choreography like even tighter.

[00:28:59] So yes, that one single handedly maybe convinced me to get into Eurovision this year.

[00:29:03] Yes.

[00:29:04] Wait till he sees Spain this year.

[00:29:06] It's one of my favorites.

[00:29:08] It's pretty great.

[00:29:09] And if you're looking for type

[00:29:10] choreography, you should check out Malta as well because her dancers pick her up

[00:29:14] and flicker.

[00:29:15] That was pretty cool.

[00:29:16] That is pretty cool.

[00:29:17] Go ahead, Chantana.

[00:29:19] No, nothing crazy.

[00:29:19] We're going to get there too, because you know,

[00:29:23] you're so like you can talk about it forever.

[00:29:24] It's amazing.

[00:29:25] That was delicious.

[00:29:26] Yeah, he never actually watching the Chanel performance this again.

[00:29:29] They're like, yeah, I've never been like, she's singing live.

[00:29:32] He goes, yep, completely.

[00:29:34] I was like, oh my God.

[00:29:35] That was like.

[00:29:36] No, we're also K-pop fans and the biggest complaint has been that K-pop, one of

[00:29:41] the many things that kind of differentiate them from like Western performers is that

[00:29:46] the lip syncing, the harmonies, but lip syncing in particular is like completely

[00:29:51] prevalent in that industry.

[00:29:52] And it's all about being perfect.

[00:29:53] But it's like train, perform well, make sure it's something that the

[00:29:57] performance can actually sing.

[00:29:58] And then we saw Chanel, we were like, oh, yeah, we got to stop like being

[00:30:02] behind this. So yeah, it just came out a perfect time.

[00:30:05] Because like you said, the maltose, we'll get into that.

[00:30:08] Yeah. Do you either of you have like a favorite

[00:30:10] performance, like name your top one?

[00:30:13] Both of you.

[00:30:14] What do you guys?

[00:30:15] This year or like ever?

[00:30:16] Ever. Good luck.

[00:30:17] Ever.

[00:30:18] Well, she's got way more to pull from than I do.

[00:30:21] So I think in terms of like just a really powerful, like

[00:30:26] the beautiful side of Eurovision, Conchita worst in 2015 with rise

[00:30:32] like a phoenix is stunning, stunning vocals, stunning staging.

[00:30:38] And an example of you can have a song that is just pretty and they're not doing a ton

[00:30:42] of choreography, but the staging comes alive around them.

[00:30:46] And it's so yeah.

[00:30:49] In terms of just fun, though,

[00:30:50] you can't really beat Subwoofer with Give the Wolf a Banana.

[00:30:55] Yes, it's called Give the Wolf a Banana.

[00:30:58] There are some songs that have that vibe this year too.

[00:31:01] Like there's an artist named Baby Lasagna.

[00:31:04] That's really what he's called.

[00:31:06] And his song is pretty wacky.

[00:31:07] I mentioned Windows 95, man.

[00:31:09] Who's the juiced client?

[00:31:11] What is he from?

[00:31:12] Never. Yeah, he's from.

[00:31:13] His song is Bulkers this year.

[00:31:15] I'm going out of total tangent.

[00:31:17] But my favorite I'm like obsessed in a Serbian artist from a couple years ago

[00:31:23] called Construpta.

[00:31:25] And I cannot pronounce the name of the song.

[00:31:28] Incorporate Sano.

[00:31:30] Incorporate Sano.

[00:31:31] It's the first Eurovision song ever to include Latin.

[00:31:34] Yes, it is not a beautiful song.

[00:31:37] It is not extraordinary choreo, but it is performance art.

[00:31:42] I mean, that's literally what she calls it.

[00:31:44] She doesn't consider herself a singer.

[00:31:45] It is performance art and the song starts by like talking Megan and Markle.

[00:31:51] Sort of.

[00:31:52] It's a whole song about having a like her static mind in a healthy body.

[00:31:57] Yes. So she talks about like what the secret of making Markle's hair?

[00:32:01] Well, everybody's taking care of it for her.

[00:32:03] So how are we all expected to have that level of perfection

[00:32:08] without the resources, without the time, without help her?

[00:32:12] Yeah, yeah.

[00:32:12] I mean, she literally calls out health insurance.

[00:32:15] I remember this performance as you mentioned it.

[00:32:17] Yeah, yeah.

[00:32:18] She's sitting in a chair with her legs slightly apart with a bowl of water

[00:32:23] and washing her hands like this the whole time.

[00:32:28] And then she's got like completely standing still.

[00:32:32] And Gregorian monks like standing around her in a half circle.

[00:32:36] And when the chorus hits, the only time they move is they just go.

[00:32:41] Yeah, they clap and then they go to do and then they go back to clapping.

[00:32:45] Like it's so bizarre.

[00:32:48] And that was the first year where I sat down and watched like all of Eurovision.

[00:32:52] That was the first year I dragged A.G. into that one.

[00:32:54] And Serbia was about to start and I was like, oh, this one's weird.

[00:32:58] I don't know how you're going to.

[00:32:59] I was all in. I was all in for Serbia.

[00:33:01] So I think like part of it is a nostalgia or like a novelty factor for me.

[00:33:06] But I'm deeply attached and they were in the running again this year,

[00:33:09] but didn't make it.

[00:33:11] But the thing that was really funny is that it was a different song with

[00:33:14] like the same staging and choreography, which is very true to like hipster

[00:33:18] performing or kind of the thing I thought that was really funny.

[00:33:21] So anyway, it was my long winded answer.

[00:33:24] I love that we will link all of them in the description for sure.

[00:33:28] OK, so I know I was kind of overwhelmed

[00:33:32] about getting into Eurovision because I think because we have kind of all the

[00:33:37] semi and then you also hear about all the individual country national

[00:33:42] competitions happening to now is like, oh, my gosh, this is like hundreds

[00:33:45] of songs and performances to watch.

[00:33:47] So what are some tips you have for people like us that are going to try

[00:33:51] and really get into it this year?

[00:33:54] I would say start with the Eurovision YouTube page.

[00:33:58] That was what I was watching.

[00:33:59] Yeah, just one through the performances once.

[00:34:02] You know, if it's your first year and you don't want to get completely down

[00:34:06] the rabbit hole and sucked into the politics of everything and everybody's

[00:34:10] national finals and everything else, you can just watch the finals.

[00:34:14] You don't have to like get invested in the

[00:34:18] cinemies and who's qualifying and who's not.

[00:34:22] But just watch it because it's fun.

[00:34:24] Yeah, and I would say don't try and get super bottomed down in the rules

[00:34:28] because as with anything that's been going for 60, 70 years,

[00:34:33] there's a lot of rules and they don't always make sense.

[00:34:35] But like I constantly have to ask Caitlin,

[00:34:38] like I don't even follow all those rules that well.

[00:34:40] But I just I just like watching the spectacle.

[00:34:42] And I did exactly what she said at the beginning of this year.

[00:34:45] I subscribe to the Eurovision YouTube channel.

[00:34:49] We'll just post almost every day, I think, like every time a country

[00:34:52] announces a new participant, they'll post either a live performance or the music

[00:34:56] video and then every now and then they'll post like a flashback to something

[00:35:00] iconic. And so that's just been a really good way.

[00:35:03] And then I mean, that's how I ended up down rabbit hole.

[00:35:05] So then I start texting Caitlin, look at this, look at this.

[00:35:08] Look at everybody who's in for Germany this year.

[00:35:11] Who's your favorite?

[00:35:12] The other thing you can do on the YouTube page,

[00:35:16] they'll have sort of a breakdown of who's in what semis where they give you

[00:35:19] about five seconds of each song.

[00:35:21] So if you're looking for a quick and dirty way to like check who's where,

[00:35:25] that's an easy way to do it.

[00:35:27] There's also a Spotify playlist.

[00:35:29] If that's more of your thing, you just have to understand that

[00:35:33] some of the songs are there because they have a strong visual element.

[00:35:37] You're just going to miss that when you're just listening or or

[00:35:40] you can listen to our podcast talking trash Eurovision.

[00:35:45] Great, look, you're very natural.

[00:35:47] I know organic.

[00:35:48] That was very organic.

[00:35:50] It was so funny.

[00:35:51] So with this was so through this week as we were kind of prepping for this,

[00:35:55] I actually did just listen to the Spotify playlist.

[00:35:57] So I heard everything before I saw any of the visuals and I agree with you

[00:36:02] that that is not the way to go

[00:36:04] because my opinions have changed quite a lot since watching the performances.

[00:36:09] So yes, don't do that to people.

[00:36:11] Yeah, I mean, I had heard that

[00:36:13] word being a song on its own.

[00:36:15] I would have been like, what the hell?

[00:36:17] And then but like seeing it, I was like dug in.

[00:36:19] So. Right.

[00:36:20] Yes. One of my friends also just wanted to say

[00:36:23] that Americans tend to take themselves too seriously, which is partly why

[00:36:27] it's not as big here because they kind of see these silly performances and stuff

[00:36:31] and then kind of just dismiss it.

[00:36:32] So he was like, just embrace the silliness of it.

[00:36:36] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:36:37] Embrace the weird. Embrace the weird.

[00:36:38] Frankly, I think the weirder the better.

[00:36:40] Yeah. We are very honest on the podcast.

[00:36:43] We have a bias against valid and we have a bias against boring staging.

[00:36:48] So if you're just going to stand there and firing you, I can't.

[00:36:52] Yeah. There's a lot of solo female artists like,

[00:36:56] you know, a lot of Britney's and Christina's coming out right now.

[00:36:59] But a lot of them are not dancers and I just can't with pop stars just

[00:37:05] standing there, not into it.

[00:37:07] The whole one direction of it all.

[00:37:08] The one direction of it all.

[00:37:09] Yeah, like the literal one direction of it all.

[00:37:12] So my God, there's this one country out of not

[00:37:15] we will rave or something.

[00:37:17] What country?

[00:37:18] We have to talk.

[00:37:19] That's all girl.

[00:37:21] We don't get to it, but honey, I was like, girl, girl, we'll get to it.

[00:37:26] It's so funny because the next episode we record, we are laying into that.

[00:37:30] Oh, again, you should look at Hawking Trash, Eurovision podcast.

[00:37:35] And all sorts of that make all y'all my publicists.

[00:37:38] Thank you. I'm in tears.

[00:37:39] I agree with Chris, I think we do take each other too seriously in terms of like

[00:37:42] music and stuff like that.

[00:37:44] But we like memes here.

[00:37:45] So it's strange.

[00:37:45] But yeah, I didn't have that problem when I was listening to the music.

[00:37:48] I think because like some of it was a little bit more rock oriented or like

[00:37:52] they had a catchy hook like a couple of the country that kind of use

[00:37:56] their automata Pia's and their languages.

[00:37:58] I was like, oh, yeah, I like this one.

[00:38:00] Like baby Soulizania.

[00:38:02] When I heard something about the cow being sold, I was like, I'm in it.

[00:38:04] I didn't have to watch the video.

[00:38:05] Then I watched it and I was like, oh, yeah, this guy's great.

[00:38:08] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:38:09] I mean, we mentioned Juice Klein from the Netherlands, who's

[00:38:15] I mean, he's literally singing a song about how all the countries of Europe are awesome.

[00:38:19] Yes. Nothing has ever been so

[00:38:21] pandorous in my entire life.

[00:38:22] He's like, but for me, because I'm going to mention every single country

[00:38:26] and how awesome they are.

[00:38:28] But then like when you watch the video, it ends with like him having

[00:38:32] a profound moment with his father and the house burning down or something.

[00:38:35] And I'm like, wait, what just happened?

[00:38:37] But if you just hear that song, it's actually probably makes more sense.

[00:38:42] So I can't wait to see how he stages it, by the way.

[00:38:44] I think that's just us.

[00:38:47] You know, so now that we're actually at this section, I know that

[00:38:51] we can talk about our thoughts on the 2024 entries.

[00:38:55] I have to what are you guys like?

[00:38:57] Yeah, Chris, I don't know what you look because I feel like me and Chris

[00:39:00] we have similar similar taste, but then sometimes it's used off.

[00:39:04] And I'm like, oh, interesting, like, you know, some perspective on that.

[00:39:07] So like, Chris, what are your pick?

[00:39:08] It's so hard because it changes every time because I've not gone through

[00:39:12] the play with so many times and different ones stand out, which I appreciate.

[00:39:15] So yeah, I definitely realize I tend to either go for really good live vocals.

[00:39:20] So I'm kind of OK with the power ballad if they can kind of stand up

[00:39:24] with a vocal or if it's just super bizarre.

[00:39:28] So that's kind of my two kind of ones that I lean towards.

[00:39:32] Well, you're in luck, of course, at the boat this year.

[00:39:35] Yes, exactly.

[00:39:36] But yeah, I think vocally, I thought Denmark's entry, Saba, I believe her name is.

[00:39:42] That is a good dramatic pop track and she has a great voice.

[00:39:46] And yes, yeah, yeah, she has a good voice.

[00:39:50] Dan O'Belgium, Belgium, good voice.

[00:39:53] Yeah, his is very dramatic in a way that I love.

[00:39:57] Follow over for.

[00:39:58] But I would say Croatia was definitely one of the ones that that came out.

[00:40:02] And AJ and I were texting and we were like, I don't fully understand what happened,

[00:40:05] but I'm completely in love with this weird dude and how he says city boys.

[00:40:10] Yeah, there's also like, I think Israel's song is really beautiful.

[00:40:14] She has a great voice singing English and at the end it comes in with some Hebrew.

[00:40:18] It's a really strong vocal.

[00:40:19] I'm trying to think who else?

[00:40:20] Poland's singer.

[00:40:22] She has a strong vocal.

[00:40:24] It's kind of wacky.

[00:40:24] I like her a lot.

[00:40:26] I would say my favorite right now is Norway, Norway and Slovenia.

[00:40:31] I that like weird, evanescent sound track it is made for me.

[00:40:36] Yeah, so both of those came out and I was like, yeah.

[00:40:40] And I believe into my veins.

[00:40:41] My current favorites are like baby lasagna, Nebulosa, I was the thing.

[00:40:46] And I don't think he stands a very good chance,

[00:40:49] but the little guy from Switzerland, Nemo.

[00:40:52] So good.

[00:40:53] You know, yes.

[00:40:54] Yeah. Oh my God, Caitlin, I'm starting to learn them from memory.

[00:40:58] I don't have to look them up anymore.

[00:41:00] Growth is a drug and advanced.

[00:41:03] What else do you guys like?

[00:41:05] I think staging wise, one that was actually very memorable was Moldova,

[00:41:10] where she had like the violinist and the two microphone stands and stuff.

[00:41:13] I love thought that was beautifully done.

[00:41:16] And she was on such a tiny stage too.

[00:41:18] So I'm excited to see her do it figure.

[00:41:21] I'm also quite intrigued by Ireland's whole like goth situation with the screamo

[00:41:28] and then like a really beautiful chorus, actually.

[00:41:31] Like the song is quite bizarre,

[00:41:33] but that one stood out when I was just listening to it,

[00:41:35] like before I saw the performance.

[00:41:37] Yeah, that one's definitely like music video reported track.

[00:41:40] I like better than what we saw in the National Final.

[00:41:44] Yeah, I'll struggle with that one because I think it's sort of a fraykin song

[00:41:47] where she's taken four songs and like put them in a trench coat

[00:41:50] and is going out with.

[00:41:53] I do this every time they're on binary and I mess that up every time.

[00:41:56] I'm so sorry. No, I did.

[00:41:58] We're carving. We have good intentions.

[00:42:00] Yes. You know, I think we listen to so much

[00:42:02] Cape Pop that the fringes signing is normal for us now.

[00:42:05] Oh, sure. Yeah.

[00:42:07] Yeah. Chris, sometimes I don't know if you've ever heard

[00:42:10] that I drag your sister to a BTS Q&A.

[00:42:14] Oh, yes, I did hear about that.

[00:42:16] And all of Seth with BTS, even still, like love so much.

[00:42:20] So anyway, a little digression.

[00:42:22] We need to get you into some of the other groups then.

[00:42:25] Yeah, my all means I'm currently obsessed with Rosé.

[00:42:29] Oh, is she from Cape Pop?

[00:42:31] She is. We got to get you deeper.

[00:42:33] You're like at the tip of the tip of it right now.

[00:42:37] I talk and I've got Instagram.

[00:42:38] I only see what they show me except ballad every now and then.

[00:42:42] I go down a hole on YouTube.

[00:42:43] So I might have seen some of the acts and not.

[00:42:46] I really recommend driving her down a rabbit hole because it's a lot of fun.

[00:42:51] And there's a group for you, Caitlyn, called Dreamcatcher.

[00:42:53] If you like the evanescence like sound, they are dripping and just Amy Lee.

[00:42:59] And I know my gosh.

[00:43:01] So we'll talk about another time off the record.

[00:43:03] But for me, I think I am similar to Chris where it's like I like a good vocal.

[00:43:08] But I definitely like a pop artist myself.

[00:43:11] So I like to have good pop or a good ballad.

[00:43:13] You got to sit and make me like reconsider.

[00:43:15] Like I wish I had someone to fall in love with and break my heart.

[00:43:17] So I could sing this song with all my body.

[00:43:20] So for me, I'm just going to go down a quick list.

[00:43:22] Malta was loop when I heard it is very catchy.

[00:43:25] I was like, oh, solid track.

[00:43:27] And she actually danced and it wasn't just sitting there selling you.

[00:43:30] I think she is a dancer like that.

[00:43:32] It was giving. It was giving.

[00:43:33] I was like, thank you for moving for France.

[00:43:36] One of mode. I was listening to it.

[00:43:37] I don't know if he'll win, but at least I'm like, OK,

[00:43:40] this is a solid song because I was last for the end.

[00:43:43] I was like, that's what we need.

[00:43:45] And he's not like that life.

[00:43:47] Yeah, yes.

[00:43:48] And I love that because it wasn't just like I'm a beautiful train singer.

[00:43:50] So I appreciate that.

[00:43:51] Norway, I'm with you.

[00:43:53] Uveham is epic.

[00:43:55] Vocally, the staging, like everything about it was just like,

[00:43:58] oh, I like this and it's a rock song and very rarely read, you know,

[00:44:02] the rock throughout the history I've noticed hasn't been really getting that love.

[00:44:05] Yeah. Latvia with hollow.

[00:44:08] I liked the concept of it.

[00:44:10] I wonder if he's going to bring all those bald men to the stage.

[00:44:16] Ask for the sense we never thought we'd say.

[00:44:19] Yeah, you know, all men to the stage.

[00:44:21] Last year, as in for the culture award,

[00:44:25] I give Armenia with Jaco, Greece with Zari and baby lasagna from Croatia

[00:44:29] with Britain, Tim Taggy, Tim, because again,

[00:44:32] all I got from all of that was this is what the people like.

[00:44:36] It had the traditional instruments involved.

[00:44:39] And I was like, I don't care what you're saying.

[00:44:42] The melody pop line is just so good.

[00:44:44] So definitely Armenia, Greece, those two women like or told to people

[00:44:48] all say stood out to me because I was like, I'm hearing the culture

[00:44:52] and I'm also hearing pop.

[00:44:53] And that's what I want for the new fan.

[00:44:56] I like that. Yeah.

[00:44:58] No, for sure.

[00:44:58] That's how I got accepted in the culture of it.

[00:45:00] And then like, yeah, and go rock for me with a good classic pop song.

[00:45:04] And, you know, I, yeah, it's why I'm a boy band fanatic

[00:45:08] in a girl singer fanatic.

[00:45:10] Like, yeah, the only reason we can talk today is because I'm taking

[00:45:13] a one hour break from watching in sync on repeat.

[00:45:16] So, you know, all good.

[00:45:18] Yeah. The other thing that we didn't mention that I think is worth mentioning

[00:45:21] and is interesting is that it is Eurovision,

[00:45:24] but there are countries that are not actually in Europe.

[00:45:27] So like we've mentioned Israel a couple times, Australia also participates.

[00:45:32] I found out why I finally it's been we keep saying like

[00:45:35] we don't know why Australia and Israel are allowed to compete, but they're here.

[00:45:39] Israel is part of the EU.

[00:45:41] They broadcast a lot of European TV.

[00:45:43] So they brought out part of the EU.

[00:45:46] And Eurovision got so popular in Australia

[00:45:49] that in 2015 as a one off, they were invited to compete just that year.

[00:45:53] And then everybody loved them so much.

[00:45:55] And they were so like welcoming and happy.

[00:45:58] Yeah, I think that they just never left.

[00:46:00] All right. Good for you, Australia.

[00:46:03] Yeah. That's great.

[00:46:04] Is there any did I miss anyone other than Israel?

[00:46:06] Australia aren't not currently Turkey used to compete.

[00:46:10] Moroffo used to compete.

[00:46:12] So there have been like outside of the EU countries who have competed before.

[00:46:17] I say this as a full American, please don't let America join.

[00:46:20] We'll ruin it.

[00:46:22] Well, what do you mean?

[00:46:23] You don't want to yummy or like, I don't know.

[00:46:27] OK, hang on. But just for I love that your immediate go to was Justin

[00:46:31] Averham, hey, listen, I know so bad.

[00:46:34] Hang on, wait, hang on, rewind.

[00:46:37] Oh my goodness. Hang on.

[00:46:38] I apologize. Oops.

[00:46:40] You know, it's so crazy.

[00:46:41] We have so many foreigners here in America,

[00:46:43] see like the weekend from Canada as well

[00:46:45] and Rihanna is barbis Bayesian, you know, good.

[00:46:48] But just for spits and gigs before we close out,

[00:46:52] who do you all think would be a good American representative

[00:46:56] for Eurovision?

[00:46:57] Rough question.

[00:46:59] Oh, God, the pressure.

[00:47:02] Yeah, my immediate thought was to do a lead.

[00:47:05] But thank you.

[00:47:06] My point is for the bar.

[00:47:08] We're still competing.

[00:47:09] I can't remember which country is it.

[00:47:10] Greece, someone competing was an American Idol finalist.

[00:47:14] I think the Georgia.

[00:47:15] Is it Georgia? Yeah.

[00:47:17] So like the Americans have.

[00:47:19] Kelly Larson, let's be at anything.

[00:47:21] Come on package of Kelly, ship her over, embarrass everybody

[00:47:25] and then leave the competition and never come back.

[00:47:27] We don't have a thousand percent.

[00:47:29] You just nailed it like it.

[00:47:30] I can imagine.

[00:47:31] Like every artist in America is afraid she'll sing their song.

[00:47:35] So that's really where we're at now.

[00:47:37] So like put the girl in put her in first class

[00:47:39] and ship her to Eurovision.

[00:47:41] You imagine?

[00:47:42] Man, I'm sorry, y'all.

[00:47:43] I'm sorry I won.

[00:47:44] I'm sorry, y'all.

[00:47:47] And you dip out of the competition with a perfect record.

[00:47:50] And we never come back.

[00:47:50] I mean, she'd come out like a steamy knit stress

[00:47:52] and bare feet and like sing circles around everybody.

[00:47:55] So we stand Kelly, as I know Chris does as well.

[00:47:59] Yes, I was actually going to say, Kelly, she is the nation's idol.

[00:48:02] She is the one. Yeah.

[00:48:05] Yeah. Come on now.

[00:48:06] All right, you guys heard it here.

[00:48:07] Kelly Clarkson is going to win Eurovision 2026

[00:48:11] at two years to prepare girl. Get on it.

[00:48:13] Yes, before we actually like do give our final closing statements

[00:48:16] and such, AJ, Caitlin, give us a plug.

[00:48:20] Rip yourself. Go ahead.

[00:48:22] Oh my goodness.

[00:48:23] Well, I think you can follow Talking Trash Eurovision on Instagram.

[00:48:29] I believe and I probably should have checked this before we logged on.

[00:48:32] But I believe it's just all one word talking to you.

[00:48:34] Try to do Eurovision.

[00:48:35] So we're on instead of fairly new accounts.

[00:48:38] So we're working on it.

[00:48:39] But come check us out.

[00:48:40] You can listen to us on Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, all the places.

[00:48:45] And for me personally, if you want to follow me anywhere,

[00:48:50] it's just my name, AJ Peawerman on every possible social media platform

[00:48:56] because that is my life.

[00:48:57] And I recommend my TikToks because I post videos of my weird dog

[00:49:01] and he's very entertaining.

[00:49:02] I don't really post on social media since Black Hat,

[00:49:06] which AJ and occasionally my writing partner get on my case about.

[00:49:10] But Talking Trash Eurovision, we are posting

[00:49:13] with had a couple of down weeks for personal stuff,

[00:49:16] but we post usually every week.

[00:49:18] And if you're getting into Eurovision,

[00:49:20] we are a fairly easy way to do it.

[00:49:22] Yeah, for sure. We're palatable.

[00:49:27] I love that word.

[00:49:28] No, you OK? OK, all right.

[00:49:30] Solid word. All right, y'all listen,

[00:49:32] CCTV crew, new viewers, if you are a fan of Eurovision,

[00:49:36] please give us some tips for beginners like us

[00:49:38] to fully enjoy the competition.

[00:49:40] And of course, drop your comments for who you expect to win this year.

[00:49:43] Will you?

[00:49:43] Well, make sure you join that conversation on Patreon as well.

[00:49:47] At Patreon dot com slash T CTV pops and message us

[00:49:50] at CTV pops on all social media.

[00:49:53] And on YouTube, please give us a like, subscribe

[00:49:55] and turn on notifications.

[00:49:56] And if you're on a podcast platform,

[00:49:58] give us and Talk to Trash a follow rating and a review.

[00:50:03] Until next time, that's great.

[00:50:05] That's Sam and AJ and Caitlin.

[00:50:08] And we're signing off from CCTV, the nonstop pop show.